Our new Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. Come up with ways to test each of the 9 businessmodel canvas hypotheses. Consider if their business worth pursuing? Their business was a robot lawn mower. MORE

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability. Freemium” model. Cost-based model. MORE

For decades large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups. What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies? acquire startups for their teams (and discard the product). MORE

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the businessmodel, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. MORE

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. Revenue model. Investors will want to understand your businessmodel very well and very early. MORE

It’s the combination of BusinessModel Design and Customer Development. BusinessModel Design. Today every business organization from startup to large company uses the words “businessmodel.” BusinessModel Canvas. MORE

At Year One Labs we’ve also found hackathons to be fairly instructive in terms of finding quality entrepreneurs: the hackathon is a microcosm of what it takes to build a startup. In my recent post on lessons learned launching a lean startup accelerator I made reference to another kind of hackathon — the BusinessModel Hackathon — as a tool we’ve used to vet entrepreneurs, find interesting people and learn. MORE

Often your best estimate of any metric or market behavior or businessmodel component is at best accurate within a power of ten, for example “expected conversion rate between 0.5% Let’s run an example, taken from real numbers from a startup I recently spoke with. MORE

Startups are the search to find order in chaos. At a board meeting last week I watched as the young startup CEO delivered bad news. The Search for the BusinessModel. A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable businessmodel. MORE

How do you convince investors that your businessmodel will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question. MORE

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. In the investment community, this work is called proving the businessmodel. MORE

Businessmodels are like instruction manuals for your business. A well-defined businessmodel should clearly articulate your function in the market, including how you make money, what inputs you depend upon, who your target customers are, and what value you are creating for them. MORE

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the businessmodel (revenue flow). Proving the businessmodel requires a different approach than proving the technical concept. So how do you go about proving the businessmodel? MORE

As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. Many are just not facing the reality that their passion had a critical business flaw. Physically or emotionally moving yourself above the business. MORE

An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the BusinessModel Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008. A business without well-defined customers is never fundable. MORE

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the businessmodel, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Image via Pets.Answers.com. MORE

As we prepared for the new Hacking for Defense class at Stanford, we had to stop and ask ourselves: How do we use the BusinessModel Canvas if the primary goal is not to earn money, but to fulfill a mission? In a business the aim is to earn more money than you spend. MORE

Startups usually succeed because of a single major product or business innovation. Google is unusual in that they succeeded because of two major innovations: their core search product, and their keyword advertising businessmodel. Back in 2000, when Google was wildly popular but generating no revenue, the conventional wisdom was that their businessmodel was uncertain. Then Overture invented keyword advertising and Google adopted the same model. MORE

Every new business quickly realizes that revenue coming in every period on a committed basis is the Holy Grail to survival and growth. Thus the subscription model (low fixed monthly payments), is rapidly becoming the norm for new products and services. All-you-can-eat content model. MORE

Today we are announcing the biggest entrepreneurial program ever launched – Startup Weekend Next. Our goal– to inspire, educate and empower hundred’s of thousands of entrepreneurs and help create 10,000 startups. The result – Startup Weekend Next. MORE

In previous posts I’ve talked about what the combination of BusinessModel Design, Customer Development and Agile Methodologies mean to startups and intrapreneurs in large companies; it’s the beginning of entrepreneurship as a science with its own rules and methodologies. My public talk at Columbia University was part of their Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Startup lecture series. Filed under: BusinessModel versus Business Plan , Customer Development. MORE

I was also very impressed with Steve Blank’s new initiative Lean Launch Lab , which combines a canvas businessmodel tool and a blogging tool for startups to use and share information regularly with investors. Lean Startup and Customer Development aren’t easy. MORE

So no, this upside-down businessmodel isn’t what a SaaS business should construct. I wish the modern startup community would understand the mindset that gets a company to this point, and resist it. MORE

—— The Lean Startup process builds new ventures more efficiently. It has three parts: a businessmodel canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products. MORE

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. Revenue model. Investors will want to understand your businessmodel very well and very early. MORE

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the businessmodel (revenue flow). Proving the businessmodel requires a different approach than proving the technical concept. So how do you go about proving the businessmodel? MORE

These three factors are, of course, critical to a healthy, growing startup, and yet individually they’re impossible to measure as precisely and easily as cancellation rate. (I’ve I guess that last sentence sounded like abstract business-speak drivel. MORE

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the businessmodel (revenue flow). Proving the businessmodel requires a different approach than proving the technical concept. So how do you go about proving the businessmodel? MORE

A good businessmodel forces you to answer two simple questions: “Who has your money in their pockets?” You’ll tweak your businessmodel constantly–in fact, it’s scary if you don’t change your model or do some major tweaking along the way. If you can’t describe your businessmodel in ten words or less, you don’t have a businessmodel. Business language does not make a businessmodel. MORE

Developing a sound businessmodel is key to the successful launch of a business. But you should never assume the businessmodeling is finished once the business begins to grow. Keeping a businessmodel current is critical for long-term success. A businessmodel helps to ensure that all of the "moving parts" of the company are working together. When we expanded our health-care business from Raleigh into Charlotte, N.C., MORE

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability. Freemium model. Cost-based model. MORE

Alexander Osterwalder and I spent last week in Salt Lake City, Utah as judges at the 2 nd Annual International BusinessModel Competition , hosted by Professor Nathan Furr , and his team at the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship. The Business Plan ?- MORE

In the last few years we’ve recognized that a startup is not a smaller version of a large company. We’re now learning that companies are not larger versions of startups. Every large company, whether it can articulate it or not, is executing a proven businessmodel (s). MORE

Within the startup realm, there is a big difference between having an innovative product versus an innovative business. Some startups have a new technology, but stick to a tried-and-true businessmodel. entrepreneur Josh Linkner startupbusinessmodelMORE

For survival, the objective of every business should be to bring in revenues which exceed their costs. Yet I continue to see business plans, or even talk to founders, and can’t find the specifics of the businessmodel anywhere. eCommerce model. Shopkeeper model. MORE

A sizable percentage of Capital Factory startup submissions take the form of the "marketplace." In fact, 3 of the 10 selected companies from the past two years has followed this businessmodel. What are other advantages or pitfalls of marketplace-style businesses? MORE

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the businessmodel, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. MORE

Four Reasons for a BusinessModel. This week at Techstars during my office hours sessions, I was asked questions by several teams which each time led to the same place: please draw a businessmodel diagram for me. Four Reasons for a BusinessModel. MORE

Can you put your entire businessmodel down on paper in 20 minutes? We sometimes find it challenging, though, to move forward with fundamentally new businessmodels. Enter the Lean Startup methodology, championed by Eric Ries. MORE

An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the BusinessModel Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008. A business without well-defined customers is never fundable.

As an entrepreneur mentor and startup investor, I see with sadness the 50 to 90 percent that fail. Many are just not facing the reality that their passion had a critical business flaw. Physically or emotionally moving yourself above the business.

How do you convince investors that your businessmodel will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Even if you are bootstrapping your business, and you are the only investor, you should be asking yourself the same question.

Every new business quickly realizes that revenue coming in every period on a committed basis is the Holy Grail to survival and growth. Thus the subscription model (low fixed monthly payments), is rapidly becoming the norm for new products and services. All-you-can-eat content model.

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. In the investment community, this work is called proving the businessmodel.

—— The Lean Startup process builds new ventures more efficiently. It has three parts: a businessmodel canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products.

I was also very impressed with Steve Blank’s new initiative Lean Launch Lab , which combines a canvas businessmodel tool and a blogging tool for startups to use and share information regularly with investors. Lean Startup and Customer Development aren’t easy.

As we prepared for the new Hacking for Defense class at Stanford, we had to stop and ask ourselves: How do we use the BusinessModel Canvas if the primary goal is not to earn money, but to fulfill a mission? In a business the aim is to earn more money than you spend.

Often your best estimate of any metric or market behavior or businessmodel component is at best accurate within a power of ten, for example “expected conversion rate between 0.5% Let’s run an example, taken from real numbers from a startup I recently spoke with.

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the businessmodel, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Image via Pets.Answers.com.

Startups usually succeed because of a single major product or business innovation. Google is unusual in that they succeeded because of two major innovations: their core search product, and their keyword advertising businessmodel. Back in 2000, when Google was wildly popular but generating no revenue, the conventional wisdom was that their businessmodel was uncertain. Then Overture invented keyword advertising and Google adopted the same model.

Alexander Osterwalder and I spent last week in Salt Lake City, Utah as judges at the 2 nd Annual International BusinessModel Competition , hosted by Professor Nathan Furr , and his team at the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship. The Business Plan ?-

At Year One Labs we’ve also found hackathons to be fairly instructive in terms of finding quality entrepreneurs: the hackathon is a microcosm of what it takes to build a startup. In my recent post on lessons learned launching a lean startup accelerator I made reference to another kind of hackathon — the BusinessModel Hackathon — as a tool we’ve used to vet entrepreneurs, find interesting people and learn.

—— The Lean Startup process builds new ventures more efficiently. It has three parts: a businessmodel canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products.

I was also very impressed with Steve Blank’s new initiative Lean Launch Lab , which combines a canvas businessmodel tool and a blogging tool for startups to use and share information regularly with investors. Lean Startup and Customer Development aren’t easy.

As we prepared for the new Hacking for Defense class at Stanford, we had to stop and ask ourselves: How do we use the BusinessModel Canvas if the primary goal is not to earn money, but to fulfill a mission? In a business the aim is to earn more money than you spend.

A sizable percentage of Capital Factory startup submissions take the form of the "marketplace." In fact, 3 of the 10 selected companies from the past two years has followed this businessmodel. What are other advantages or pitfalls of marketplace-style businesses?

A good businessmodel forces you to answer two simple questions: “Who has your money in their pockets?” You’ll tweak your businessmodel constantly–in fact, it’s scary if you don’t change your model or do some major tweaking along the way. If you can’t describe your businessmodel in ten words or less, you don’t have a businessmodel. Business language does not make a businessmodel.

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the businessmodel (revenue flow). Proving the businessmodel requires a different approach than proving the technical concept. So how do you go about proving the businessmodel?

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the businessmodel, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy.

Businessmodels are like instruction manuals for your business. A well-defined businessmodel should clearly articulate your function in the market, including how you make money, what inputs you depend upon, who your target customers are, and what value you are creating for them.

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. Revenue model. Investors will want to understand your businessmodel very well and very early.

These three factors are, of course, critical to a healthy, growing startup, and yet individually they’re impossible to measure as precisely and easily as cancellation rate. (I’ve I guess that last sentence sounded like abstract business-speak drivel.

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability. Freemium” model. Cost-based model.

Startups are the search to find order in chaos. At a board meeting last week I watched as the young startup CEO delivered bad news. The Search for the BusinessModel. A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable businessmodel.

Can you put your entire businessmodel down on paper in 20 minutes? We sometimes find it challenging, though, to move forward with fundamentally new businessmodels. Enter the Lean Startup methodology, championed by Eric Ries.

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the businessmodel (revenue flow). Proving the businessmodel requires a different approach than proving the technical concept. So how do you go about proving the businessmodel?

Our new Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. Come up with ways to test each of the 9 businessmodel canvas hypotheses. Consider if their business worth pursuing? Their business was a robot lawn mower.

Developing a sound businessmodel is key to the successful launch of a business. But you should never assume the businessmodeling is finished once the business begins to grow. Keeping a businessmodel current is critical for long-term success. A businessmodel helps to ensure that all of the "moving parts" of the company are working together. When we expanded our health-care business from Raleigh into Charlotte, N.C.,

This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. The real milestone, proving the businessmodel, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy.

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the businessmodel (revenue flow). Proving the businessmodel requires a different approach than proving the technical concept. So how do you go about proving the businessmodel?

Four Reasons for a BusinessModel. This week at Techstars during my office hours sessions, I was asked questions by several teams which each time led to the same place: please draw a businessmodel diagram for me. Four Reasons for a BusinessModel.

In the last few years we’ve recognized that a startup is not a smaller version of a large company. We’re now learning that companies are not larger versions of startups. Every large company, whether it can articulate it or not, is executing a proven businessmodel (s).

Within the startup realm, there is a big difference between having an innovative product versus an innovative business. Some startups have a new technology, but stick to a tried-and-true businessmodel. entrepreneur Josh Linkner startupbusinessmodel

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. Revenue model. Investors will want to understand your businessmodel very well and very early.

Today we are announcing the biggest entrepreneurial program ever launched – Startup Weekend Next. Our goal– to inspire, educate and empower hundred’s of thousands of entrepreneurs and help create 10,000 startups. The result – Startup Weekend Next.

In previous posts I’ve talked about what the combination of BusinessModel Design, Customer Development and Agile Methodologies mean to startups and intrapreneurs in large companies; it’s the beginning of entrepreneurship as a science with its own rules and methodologies. My public talk at Columbia University was part of their Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Startup lecture series. Filed under: BusinessModel versus Business Plan , Customer Development.

For decades large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups. What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies? acquire startups for their teams (and discard the product).

It’s the combination of BusinessModel Design and Customer Development. BusinessModel Design. Today every business organization from startup to large company uses the words “businessmodel.” BusinessModel Canvas.

For survival, the objective of every business should be to bring in revenues which exceed their costs. Yet I continue to see business plans, or even talk to founders, and can’t find the specifics of the businessmodel anywhere. eCommerce model. Shopkeeper model.

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability. Freemium model. Cost-based model.